I came back from China a few weeks ago and it was quite an adventure. First, I went to Beijing where I met my friend Ivanka (who lives in Bangkok but was in Beijing for a conference) and my brother-in-law, Jesse, who came down from Shanghai to see the sights with me since he has only been to Beijing on business. Jesse and I went to the Great Wall, which was amazing, but very crowded. Fortunately, we had a beautiful day with clear blue skies (rather unusual near Beijing) and climbing the wall was an amazing experience. We started by taking these rickety little go-carts that ran on rails through a tunnel that got us close to the 4th tower. Then, we hiked between the 4th and 8th towers. The total walk up and back between ... read more

The plan was simple. After last year's fiasco when we found out that Max needed major ear surgery for the removal of a cholesteatoma (a benign tumor that does a lot of damage in the middle ear) while we were on holiday in the U.S., such that we had to prolong our travels for his surgery and recovery, take our five-month-old twins with us to the hospital during the surgery, and separate the twins when Jim had to eventually return to work and didn't want to leave me by myself with two small infants and a five-year-old who needed medical care so he took Levi back with him, we felt that this time we would have things under control. We knew that Max needed a second surgery within a year of the first and so we ... read more

As some of you may know, we found out in the last few weeks that we will be staying in Bangkok for one more year. We are happy about this prospect because life in Bangkok is in many ways easier than Washington, D.C., not least because help with the children is affordable. Certainly with Levi and Bram, it will be nice to have the additional help until they turn two. Also, Max's school here is very nice and starts a Spanish language program for the coming year, so we're happy for him to have the opportunity to learn another language. Levi and Bram are now learning a combination of Thai and English - it's very funny to hear them say alternatively "no" and "mai ao" (literally, "not want" in Thai). However, we had very little time ... read more

I went to Hanoi for 3 days last week with my friends April, Shanda, and Ivanka. This was my first time to Vietnam and also my first trip without my family since coming to Thailand. Hanoi was absolutely wonderful -it is a charming city. So beautiful with a lovely lake in the center, French colonial architecture, amazing food, and fantastic shopping (though this was helped by the fact that the Vietnamese currency is tied to the U.S. dollar, so it's one of the few countries left where the dollar can still purchase a lot). In fact, I enjoyed shopping in Hanoi even more than shopping in Bangkok because many of the stores in Hanoi are small independent boutiques featuring local designers and artists with high quality goods for reasonable prices. As an example, I bought an ... read more

It's hard to believe that this is our last Loy Krathong holiday (the Thai festival of lights) in Thailand. It's one of our favorites because it is so beautiful - everyone makes little floating boats (called krathongs) out of banana leaves and flowers, sticks candle and incense on them, lights them, and then puts them on the water. Also, in some places, paper lanterns are lit and released into the sky. Today (Saturday) is the actual Loy Krathong holiday, but yesterday Max celebrated it at his school. I have some pictures of that here. The weather here in Bangkok now is beautiful - in the eighties during the day and down to the seventies at night. The air is also dry - very low humidity. This is the best time to visit Thailand - the "cool" ... read more